Jul 2, 2020 3 min read

Edward Strawn, warden of Washington County jail for the past four years, submitted a letter to members of the Prison Board last week notifying them of his intention to retire July 31.

The board accepted his intention to retire at age 58 and thanked him for his decades of service to Washington County, which began in September 1992.

Diana Irey Vaughan, commission chairman who also chairs the prison board, said Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel agreed to participate in a conference call with her and Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone to assist in the search for Strawn’s replacement. The position currently pays $88,026.

Washington County Sheriff Samuel Romano and members of his staff will provide oversight during the transition, working with Strawn and his deputy wardens and presenting a plan to the prison board at its mid-July meeting.

Christopher Cain is deputy warden in charge of security and Donald Waugh is deputy warden in charge of operations.

Also in the works is a strategic plan for future corrections operations related to re-entry that coordinates with courts, Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission, county Behavioral Health Department and other human service agencies.

Kimberly Rogers this spring was named county human services director who was tasked with implementing a single point of entry and exit for all clients of the agency, including individuals who are part of corrections.

Strawn told the board he had worked his way “from the bottom up.” A former captain of corrections officers, he was named major in 2012 and when John Temas became warden the next year, Strawn became deputy warden in charge of security. The prison board named him acting warden in 2016, and then chose him for the top job.

Also noted in conjunction with Strawn’s imminent departure was a “clean” audit of jail accounts monitored by the county controller’s office.

“That’s a successful improvement that we thanked the warden for today,” Irey Vaughan said Wednesday.

In the past, Washington County Controller Michael Namie and his staff found the jail was not reconciling bank statements to the facility’s monthly balance in what is known as the inmate money account.

There were no missing funds, but the controller had reported the situation to the prison board as a recurring problem of inadequate internal controls. This was found to be remedied in 2019.

Strawn’s report to the prison board last month showed 278 inmates housed in the facility during May. The population decreased during the novel coronavirus pandemic because of court-ordered releases, but Strawn said at the time he was seeing an uptick in numbers of arrests and incarcerations.

He also noted there were no positive results reported from tests of the highly-contagious disease among inmates or staff members during the pandemic.